How do you want your verse, your chorus to go?
“Kelly, you really need to write about some of this.”
When I've found myself in conversation sharing the joys and challenges of institutional church planting, people have often encouraged me to write about it. I don’t know… maybe I've just sounded really fragmented and they’re hoping the writing process would get me put back together. Or maybe I've spoken with a lot of intensity and they've wanted to hear it on paper. (Me, speaking with intensity? Nooo... sarcasm intended.)
Honestly, I need to get some distance before I can do any
real writing. I do have things to say
which I hope could help other denominational or post-denominational church
planters and developers. I've learned a lot. Those ideas need
some more simmering though. For now, I just have the brainstormed list in the white box. If I ever write a book, I think it's going to be called something like... Post-Mainline: If you can't be with the one you love, then love the one you're with.
I am, however, ready to reflect on my future and my calling, mostly because lots and lots of people have been asking what I’m doing next. To catch you up to speed, I was appointed to a United Methodist church plant project that was supposed to come out of an existing congregation. It took us quite a while to get our feet under us. I can point to why, but that’s one of those writings for another day. After 16 months in the project, I realized that for the sake of myself, my family, and the project, I needed to end my appointment (aka resigning, for those outside the UMC bubble). This was a super hard and important decision.
When coming to terms with this decision, I talked to several people who have served in advisory roles in my life. While on the phone with a dear mentor, I wondered aloud whether I would be a pastor on January 1 even without a church. She said, “You know how calling works. You just try that. You just try not being a pastor. See how that works for you.” Yeah, she’s right… I’ve tried not being a pastor before. It doesn’t work. She knows it. I know it.
So I guess I’m a pastor.
It’s yet to be determined whether I am a start-up planter. I’m thinking not, but I’m something close to it—maybe a revitalizer, a satellite pastor, or maybe I’m a foundation builder. I do know I do creative ministry, and my calling is to reach the de-churched, the dones, and the nones. And I actually see the church (that is, the people) as the vehicle to do that. Reaching the de-churched can be done through other means, but like wine, spirituality really is better if enjoyed in community, and I like the idea of both church and wine.
Two years ago, the food service at UW-Stout added flatbread pizzas to their menu. A colleague and I ordered a chicken artichoke pizza the first week. OMG. I mean OMG! It was unbelievably yummy. I swear that first flatbread pizza was dropped down from heaven. To this day, my friend and I still oooww and aaawww over that pizza. I now eat one per week.
Once you get a taste for something super yummy, you just can’t forget about it. This last 16 months has given me a taste of something, something really good. I don’t want to live in the past, but the good stuff from the last 16 months will forever create a yearning in me.
I’m at the point where I have to figure out what I’m going to do when I grow up, AGAIN. The reality is this: I don’t know. But here’s what I do know.
-I’m a pastor.
-I’m a church developer who is called to reach the de-churched by creating a space they can do
church again.
-I work best in a setting where an existing church is the vehicle to make the above happen.
Church people don’t get off the hook by insisting on their own preferences when there is a
whole culture out there to engage.
-I’m a progressive Christian. And I think that’s very important to Christianity right now in order to
keep our conservative brothers and sisters in check, particularly out of a holy war. If those words
"progressive Christian" confuse you, my fellow-UMCer Roger wrote a good blog on it.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogerwolsey/2014/01/progressive-christianity-isnt-progressive-politics-2/
And that’s what I’ve learned this year about myself. And that’s what I will be looking for as I move forward.
But for the meantime, I'm overhauling some classes at UW-Stout, working on a project for ConvergenceUS which requires some travel, getting my eating/exercising/sleeping back in order, hoping to do some sub/guest preaching, cleaning my house, helping my kids navigate their lives, and appreciating some song lyrics.
"We can start anew, we can make it all up again. We can make it through, we can get it all unstuck again. In the blanks that are waiting for us, how do you want your verse, your chorus to go?" -Cory Carlson
"If somethings on your mind, then say what you've got to say. And if you need to make a change, then just walk away... When you let it go, what they say is true. When you let it go, it'll come right back to you." Tyrone Wells, Freedom
May it be so.
When I've found myself in conversation sharing the joys and challenges of institutional church planting, people have often encouraged me to write about it. I don’t know… maybe I've just sounded really fragmented and they’re hoping the writing process would get me put back together. Or maybe I've spoken with a lot of intensity and they've wanted to hear it on paper. (Me, speaking with intensity? Nooo... sarcasm intended.)
Honestly, I need to get some distance before I can do any
real writing. I do have things to say
which I hope could help other denominational or post-denominational church
planters and developers. I've learned a lot. Those ideas need
some more simmering though. For now, I just have the brainstormed list in the white box. If I ever write a book, I think it's going to be called something like... Post-Mainline: If you can't be with the one you love, then love the one you're with. I am, however, ready to reflect on my future and my calling, mostly because lots and lots of people have been asking what I’m doing next. To catch you up to speed, I was appointed to a United Methodist church plant project that was supposed to come out of an existing congregation. It took us quite a while to get our feet under us. I can point to why, but that’s one of those writings for another day. After 16 months in the project, I realized that for the sake of myself, my family, and the project, I needed to end my appointment (aka resigning, for those outside the UMC bubble). This was a super hard and important decision.
When coming to terms with this decision, I talked to several people who have served in advisory roles in my life. While on the phone with a dear mentor, I wondered aloud whether I would be a pastor on January 1 even without a church. She said, “You know how calling works. You just try that. You just try not being a pastor. See how that works for you.” Yeah, she’s right… I’ve tried not being a pastor before. It doesn’t work. She knows it. I know it.
So I guess I’m a pastor.
It’s yet to be determined whether I am a start-up planter. I’m thinking not, but I’m something close to it—maybe a revitalizer, a satellite pastor, or maybe I’m a foundation builder. I do know I do creative ministry, and my calling is to reach the de-churched, the dones, and the nones. And I actually see the church (that is, the people) as the vehicle to do that. Reaching the de-churched can be done through other means, but like wine, spirituality really is better if enjoyed in community, and I like the idea of both church and wine.
Two years ago, the food service at UW-Stout added flatbread pizzas to their menu. A colleague and I ordered a chicken artichoke pizza the first week. OMG. I mean OMG! It was unbelievably yummy. I swear that first flatbread pizza was dropped down from heaven. To this day, my friend and I still oooww and aaawww over that pizza. I now eat one per week.
Once you get a taste for something super yummy, you just can’t forget about it. This last 16 months has given me a taste of something, something really good. I don’t want to live in the past, but the good stuff from the last 16 months will forever create a yearning in me.
I’m at the point where I have to figure out what I’m going to do when I grow up, AGAIN. The reality is this: I don’t know. But here’s what I do know.
-I’m a church developer who is called to reach the de-churched by creating a space they can do
church again.
-I work best in a setting where an existing church is the vehicle to make the above happen.
Church people don’t get off the hook by insisting on their own preferences when there is a
whole culture out there to engage.
-I’m a progressive Christian. And I think that’s very important to Christianity right now in order to
keep our conservative brothers and sisters in check, particularly out of a holy war. If those words
"progressive Christian" confuse you, my fellow-UMCer Roger wrote a good blog on it.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogerwolsey/2014/01/progressive-christianity-isnt-progressive-politics-2/
And that’s what I’ve learned this year about myself. And that’s what I will be looking for as I move forward.
But for the meantime, I'm overhauling some classes at UW-Stout, working on a project for ConvergenceUS which requires some travel, getting my eating/exercising/sleeping back in order, hoping to do some sub/guest preaching, cleaning my house, helping my kids navigate their lives, and appreciating some song lyrics.
"We can start anew, we can make it all up again. We can make it through, we can get it all unstuck again. In the blanks that are waiting for us, how do you want your verse, your chorus to go?" -Cory Carlson
"If somethings on your mind, then say what you've got to say. And if you need to make a change, then just walk away... When you let it go, what they say is true. When you let it go, it'll come right back to you." Tyrone Wells, Freedom
May it be so.
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